"What the hell do you think you're doing?" I whispered furiously, balling up the hand on his chest into a fist and pounding it against him. "You don't own me, Robbie. In fact, we’re not even friends. I'm a grown woman now and I have the right to hang out with whoever I like."
Robbie's square jaw clenched as he glared down at me. "You do. And still, if I see someone I care about doing something stupid, I'm not going to just let them do it without saying anything. Don't act like you wouldn't do the same."
Rage poured through me like a welcome elixir, giving me back the strength that all the pain and sadness I'd felt after seeing him had sapped away.
"Someone you care about?" I let out a low, bitter laugh. "If you cared about me, you wouldn't have cheated on me and then dumped me. Just like that. Together every day. Every hour, for four years and then I never see you again? No calls, no texts to see if I’m okay, not even an email. You don't care about me, Robbie. You only care about yourself." I turned before he could see the tears in my eyes and started to walk away. "Stay away from me. If you see me out again, just go somewhere else."
He grabbed my arm and tugged me to a stop, urging me to face him. His grip was loose enough that if I wanted to pull away, I could've, but something inside me made me stay put.
"I care about you, Melis. I never stopped caring. Which is why I don't give a shit if you're mad at me. I'm walking you to your room."
I faced him again and snorted.
"Not likely. I came to Monaco to party and have a great time. You think some blast from the past is going to keep me from that? You overestimate your power over me."
I jerked away from him with more force than was needed and the room promptly began to spin. I stumbled and was about to take a header into a potted rubber tree when a pair of strong arms closed around my waist.
I'd barely gotten my breath back to demand he let me go when he scooped me into his arms and started heading for the exit.
"Robbie, seriously," I hissed, shoving ineffectually at his massive shoulders. "Put me down, right now."
I was about to really make a fuss and start calling for help when my mouth started to water in the universal sign for "I'm about to puke”.
"Shit," I muttered, pinching my eyes closed to fight off the nausea. "I feel sick."
"Because you drank too much. Seriously, Melis, let me get you back to your room safely, okay? If you want to be with that guy tomorrow when you're in your right mind, go for it." His low voice was urgent as we approached the exit where a bouncer stood eyeing us both suspiciously. "But right now, tell the nice man at the door that you're coming with me of your own free will, okay? I don’t want to have to fight him."
I should’ve argued. Demanded he put me down, but it was taking all my energy not to hurl down the front of his shirt, so I just nodded.
"Everything okay here, folks?"
"Yeah," Robbie said with a nod. "My girlfriend had a little too much to drink. I just want to get her back to our hotel so she can lay down."
I offered the doorman a thumbs up and held my breath that it would be enough because the second I opened my mouth, it was about to get chunky.
The bouncer cocked his shiny, bald head for a second before moving aside and letting us past.
We stepped out into the breezy night and I instantly felt the nausea start to fade as the cooler air hit me.
"Oh, thank god. It was hotter than Satan's taint in there," I gasped, letting my head loll back to get the breeze on my neck and chest.
"Yeah, well, you probably got too much sun today and combined with the alcohol, it's a dangerous combination."
I popped him off a mock salute. "Roger that, Captain. And thanks for the life advice. You can put me down now."
He didn't slow his pace as he picked his way across the sand to the entrance of the resort. "I can, but I'm not going to. You're a hazard to yourself right now and I don't want you to fall again. Just humor me, okay? The second I get your room door opened and make sure you're in it, I'll back off. Scouts Honor."
That last part hit me in the solar plexus like a punch.
"Oh, fuck you, Robbie."
Scouts Honor.
Robbie had wanted to be an Eagle Scout his whole life. Raised by a distant cousin who’d never wanted kids and had done the bare minimum to keep him alive and fed, he'd had no help in the matter. But he wouldn’t take no for an answer and had paid for his dues and uniforms every year with money from cutting lawns in the summer time. Outdoors had been his refuge until he was old enough to be in the gym punching a bag, and he'd carried that love his whole life.
His Eagle Scout ceremony had been a day that had filled both of us with such pride. Scouts Honor soon became our way of telling the other when we were truly sincere about something. It represented an unbreakable oath or promise between us, and it meant everything.
Until it didn’t.
Now, as those two seemingly harmless words echoed between us, I wanted to curl up in a ball and die.
Three
Robbie
Scouts fucking honor.
Wow, was I the worst kind of asshole.
I stared down at Melissa’s stunned face, wishing like hell I hadn't said it, but there was no taking it back.